© CHANDAN KHANNADemonstrators participate in the I Cant Breathe - Silent March for Justice in front of the Hennepin County Government Center on March 7, 2021, where the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, charged with murdering African American man George Floyd, will begin on March 8, 2021, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. - His name is chanted by demonstrators around the globe. His face is displayed on murals all over the United States. Since his brutal death George Floyd has embodied, more than any other, the Black victims of police violence and racism in the United States. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
Hundreds of protesters marched through downtown Minneapolis Sunday, the eve of the trial of ex-cop Derek Chauvin for the in-custody death of George Floyd last year.
© Provided by New York Daily NewsPeople gather during a demonstration in honor of George Floyd on March 7, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
People gather during a demonstration in honor of George Floyd on March 7, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/)
Pallbearers holding a rose-bedecked casket led off the march, which started at the Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis. From there marchers made their way to Fourth Street, then stopped to listen to a reading of names of Minnesotans killed by police in the past 20 years, reported WCCO-TV.
The list, read by attorney and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong, was but a fraction of the 470 total names that was compiled by the nonprofit Communities United Against Police Brutality, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
"The city had four chances to stop Chauvin before he put his knee on George Floyd's neck, and they did nothing," the group's founder, Michelle Gross, told the crowd. "These are people whose families are left to grieve. These are people who will never complete their life's mission because their lives were stolen from them prematurely."
Over a 19-year career with the Minneapolis Police Department, Chauvin had a hand in two nonfatal police shootings and two deadly civilian encounters, the Star Tribune said. While he had been the subject of 17 misconduct complaints since 2001, he had only been disciplined once, the newspaper said.
© Provided by New York Daily NewsPeople march in honor of George Floyd outside the Hennepin County Government Center on March 7, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
People march in honor of George Floyd outside the Hennepin County Government Center on March 7, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/)
The government center and other downtown buildings have been fortified with fencing and concrete barricades as the city prepares for unrest.
The peaceful crowd marched to songs by Bob Marley, Prince and Sam Cooke, reported the Star Tribune.
Jury selection for Chauvin begins Monday. He is charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Floyd's family members are already in town and mentally preparing for the intense scrutiny the proceedings will receive. COVID restrictions will limit just one family member at a time in the courtroom, but they plan to rotate, a cousin told the Daily News.
Floyd was 46 when he was killed. Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes on May 25, 2020, while fellow cops Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng held Floyd down and officer Tou Thao stood by. Their trials will be held starting in August.